ACC teams and athletes have claimed dozens of national championships in multiple sports throughout the conference's history. Generally, the ACC's top athletes and teams in any particular sport in a given year are considered to be among the top collegiate competitors in the nation. Additionally, the conference enjoys extensive media coverage. With the advent of the College Football Playoff in 2014, the ACC is one of the "Power Five" conferences with a contractual tie-in to a New Year's Sixbowl game in the sport of football.
The ACC was founded on May 8, 1953, by seven universities located in the South Atlantic States, with the University of Virginia joining in early December 1953 to bring the membership to eight.[2] The loss of South Carolina in 1971 dropped membership to seven, while the addition of Georgia Tech in 1979 for non-football sports and 1983 for football brought it back to eight, and Florida State's arrival in 1991 for non-football sports and 1992 for football increased the membership to nine. Since 2000, with the widespread reorganization of the NCAA, seven additional schools have joined, and one original member (Maryland) has left to bring it to the current membership of 16 schools. The additions in recent years extended the conference's footprint into the Northeast and Midwest.
The ACC has 16 member institutions from 11 states. Listed in alphabetical order, these 11 states within the ACC's geographical footprint are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The geographic domain of the conference is predominantly within the Southern and Northeastern United States along the US Atlantic coast and stretches from Florida in the south to New York in the north and from Texas in the west to Massachusetts farthest east.
When Notre Dame joined the ACC, it chose to remain a football independent. However, its football team established a special scheduling arrangement with the ACC to play a rotating selection of five ACC football teams per season. For the 2020 season, due largely to the suspension of most non-conference games by other Power Five conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the ACC reached an agreement to allow Notre Dame to play a full, 10-game conference schedule and be eligible to play for the ACC championship.[4]
Since July 1, 2024, the 16 members of the ACC are:
↑ Although Florida State joined the ACC for most sports during the 1991–92 school year, it did not compete for the league's football championship until the 1992 fall season (1992–93 school year).[7]
↑ Although Georgia Tech joined the ACC during the 1979–80 season, it did not compete for the league's football championship until the 1983 fall season (1983–84 school year).[8]
↑ The SMU campus is almost entirely located in University Park, Texas, a separate city contained within the Dallas city limits. However, the U.S. Postal Service considers all locations in University Park to have a Dallas address.
Future members
California and Stanford will join the ACC on August 2, 2024.[9] The difference in membership dates stems from the Pac-12 having a different operating year from most other NCAA conferences, starting on August 2 instead of July 1.
In 1971, the University of South Carolina left the ACC to become an independent, later joining the Metro Conference in 1983 and moving to its current home, the Southeastern Conference, in 1991. On July 1, 2014, the University of Maryland departed for the Big Ten Conference.
Full membersNon-football membersIndependentOther ConferenceOther Conference
History
Founding and early expansion
The ACC was established on June 14, 1953, when seven members of the Southern Conference left to form their own conference.[n 1][13] These seven universities became charter members of the ACC: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest. They left partially due to the Southern Conference's ban on post-season football play that had been initiated in 1951. (Clemson and Maryland had both defied the Southern Conference's bowl rule following the 1951 season and were banned from playing other conference teams in the 1952 season.)[14] After drafting a set of bylaws for the creation of a new league, the seven withdrew from the Southern Conference at the spring meeting on the morning of May 8, 1953, at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. The bylaws were ratified on June 14, 1953, and the new conference was created.[15] The conference officials indicated a desire to add an eighth member, and candidates mentioned were Virginia, VPI and West Virginia.[16] On December 4, 1953, officials convened in Greensboro, North Carolina, and admitted Virginia, a former Southern Conference charter member that had been independent since 1937, into the conference.[17] Virginia's president Colgate Darden argued fiercely against joining the ACC or any conference, while UVA athletics director Gus Tebell argued in favor.[18] In the end, UVA's Board of Visitors approved joining the ACC by a vote of 6–3.[18]
In 1960, the ACC implemented a minimum SAT score for incoming student-athletes of 750, the first conference to do so. This minimum was raised to 800 in 1964, but was ultimately struck down by a federal court in 1972.[19]
On July 1, 1971, South Carolina left the ACC to become an independent.
Racial integration
Racial integration of all-white collegiate sports teams was high on the regional agenda in the 1950s and 1960s. Involved were issues of equality, racism, and the alumni demand for the top players needed to win high-profile games. The ACC took the lead.[vague] First they started to schedule integrated teams from the north. Finally ACC schools—typically under pressure from boosters and civil rights groups—integrated their teams.[20] With an alumni base that dominated local and state politics, society and business, the ACC flagship schools were successful in their endeavor—as Pamela Grundy argues, they had learned how to win:
The widespread admiration that athletic ability inspired would help transform athletic fields from grounds of symbolic play to forces for social change, places where a wide range of citizens could publicly and at times effectively challenge the assumptions that cast them as unworthy of full participation in U.S. society. While athletic successes would not rid society of prejudice or stereotype—black athletes would continue to confront racial slurs...[—minority star players demonstrated] the discipline, intelligence, and poise to contend for position or influence in every arena of national life.[21]
1978 and 1991 expansions
The ACC operated with seven members until the addition of Georgia Tech from the Metro Conference, announced on April 3, 1978, and taking effect on July 1, 1979, except in football, in which Tech would remain an independent until joining ACC football in 1983. The total number of member schools reached nine with the addition of Florida State, also formerly from the Metro Conference, on July 1, 1991, in non-football sports and July 1, 1992, in football. The additions of those schools marked the first expansions of the conference footprint since 1953, though both schools were still located with the rest of the ACC schools in the South Atlantic States.
The ACC added three members from the Big East Conference during the 2005 conference realignment. Initially, the conference targeted Boston College, Miami, and Syracuse. The expansion was controversial, as Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia (and, initially, Virginia Tech) filed lawsuits against the ACC, Miami, and Boston College for allegedly conspiring to weaken the Big East Conference. Then-Virginia governor Mark Warner, who feared Virginia Tech being left behind in a weakened Big East, pressured the administration of the University of Virginia to lobby on behalf of their in-state foe. Eventually Virginia Tech replaced Syracuse in the expansion lineup and ACC expansion was agreed upon. Miami and Virginia Tech joined on July 1, 2004, while Boston College joined on July 1, 2005, as the league's twelfth member and the first from the Northeast.
The ACC Hall of Champions opened on March 2, 2011, next to the Greensboro Coliseum arena, making the ACC the second college sports conference to have a hall of fame after the Southern Conference.[22][n 2]
On September 17, 2011, Big East Conference members Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh both applied to join the ACC.[24] The two schools were accepted into the conference the following day, once again expanding the conference footprint like previous expansions.[25] Because the Big East intended to hold Pitt and Syracuse to the 27-month notice period required by league bylaws, the most likely entry date into the ACC (barring negotiations) was July 1, 2014.[26] However, in July 2012, the Big East came to an agreement with Syracuse and Pitt that allowed the two schools to leave the Big East on July 1, 2013.[27][28]
On September 12, 2012, Notre Dame agreed to join the ACC in all conference sports except football and men's ice hockey (as the ACC does not sponsor men's ice hockey; of all other ACC universities, only Boston College sponsors men's ice hockey) as the conference's first member in the Midwestern United States. As part of the agreement, Notre Dame committed to play five football games each season against ACC schools beginning in 2014.[29] On March 12, 2013, Notre Dame and the Big East announced they had reached a settlement allowing Notre Dame to join the ACC effective July 1, 2013.[30]
On November 19, 2012, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the ACC to join the Big Ten Conference effective in 2014.[31] The following week, the Big East's University of Louisville accepted the ACC's invitation to become a full member, replacing Maryland effective July 1, 2014.[32]
The ACC's presidents announced on April 22, 2013, that all 15 schools that would be members of the conference in 2014–15 had signed a grant of media rights (GOR), effective immediately and running through the 2026–27 school year, coinciding with the duration of the conference's then-current TV deal with ESPN. This move essentially prevents the ACC from being a target for other conferences seeking to expand—under the grant, if a school leaves the conference during the contract period, all revenue derived from that school's media rights for home games would belong to the ACC and not the school.[33] The move also left the SEC as the only one of the FBS Power Five conferences without a GOR.[34]
In July 2016, the GOR was extended through the 2035–36 school year, coinciding with the signing of a new 20-year deal with ESPN that would transform the then-current ad hoc ACC Network into a full-fledged network. The new network launched as a digital service in the 2016–17 school year and as a linear network in August 2019.[35]
On September 1, 2023, the conference voted to expand and add three new members: California, SMU, and Stanford. The announcement was initially controversial, given the distance between the schools and its current members.[40]
Seven ACC institutions are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities: Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and Virginia.[49][50] Syracuse was a member until 2011 but voluntarily withdrew over a dispute on how to count non-federal grants.[51] Incoming conference members UC-Berkeley and Stanford are also AAU members.
The members of the ACC participate in the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Consortium (ACCAC), a consortium that provides a vehicle for inter-institutional academic and administrative collaboration between member universities. Growing out of a conference-wide doctoral student-exchange program that was established in 1999, the ACCAC has expanded its scope into other domestic and international collaborations.[64]
The stated mission of the ACCAC is to "leverage the athletic associations and identities among the 15 ACC universities in order to enrich the educational missions of member universities." To that end, the collaborative helps organize various academic initiatives, including fellowship and scholarship programs, global research initiatives, leadership conferences, and extensive study abroad programs.[65] Funding for its operations, 90% of which is spent on direct student support, is derived from a portion of the income generated by the ACC Football Championship Game and by supplemental allocations by individual universities and various grants.[66]
ACCAC academic programs
Major academic programs that have been implemented under ACCAC include:
The annual Meeting of the Minds (MOM) undergraduate research conference.[67]
The Creativity and Innovation Fellowship Program in which each university receives $12,500 to award between two and five undergraduate students ACCAC fellowships for research or creative projects.[69]
The Summer Research Scholars Program in which every ACC university will receive $5,000 to support up to two of its undergraduate students in conducting research in residence at another ACC university during a minimum 10-week period over the summer.[70]
The ACC Inventure Prize Competition is a Shark Tank-like innovation competition for teams of students from ACC universities.[72]
The Student Federal Relations Trip to Washington, D.C. is an annual trip of student delegates from ACC universities to the nation's capital.[73]
The Creativity Competition is planned to be an ACC-wide, team-based interdisciplinary competition emphasizing use of creative design and the arts to begin in 2017.[73]
The Distinguished Lecturers Program in which five ACC universities select an outstanding faculty member as The ACCAC's Distinguished Lecturer. In addition to an award stipend, the ACCAC provides financial support to enable each ACC university to sponsor a "distinguished lecture event" on their campus.[74]
The Executive Leadership Series is a two-day skill enhancement programs designed for Deans, Vice Provosts, and Vice Chancellors of ACC universities.[73]
The Coach for College Program, primarily for student-athletes and run through Duke University with support from the ACCAC, that takes 32 ACC students to Vietnam for three weeks in the summer to coach hundreds of middle school children.[76]
The Traveling Scholars Program which allows PhD candidates from one ACC campus to access courses, laboratories, library, or other resources at any one of the other ACC member institution campuses.[77]
The Clean Energy Grant Competition that helps coordinate geographically defined clusters of ACC universities in competition for United States Department of Energy Clean Energy Grants.[77]
The Study Abroad Program collaborative which allows cross-registration in study abroad programs enroll in programs sponsored by an ACC university other than their "home" university.[77] A Student Study Abroad Scholarship program that awarded two to five ACCAC scholarships for study abroad was discontinued in 2013, but is targeted for renewal in 2014–15.[78]
The ACCAC also supports periodic meetings among faculty, administration, and staff who pursue similar interests and responsibilities at the member universities either by face-to-face conferences, video conferences, or telephone conferences. ACCAC affinity groups include those for International Affairs Officers, Study Abroad Directors, Teaching-Learning Center Directors, Chief Information Officers, Chief Procurement Officers, Undergraduate Research Conference Coordinators, Student Affairs Vice Presidents, Student Leadership Conference Coordinators, and Faculty Athletic Representatives To the ACC.[79]
Athletic department revenue by school
Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties.
Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance.
The following table shows institutional reporting to the United States Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2022–23 academic year.[80]
The following table shows revenue specifically from NCAA / Conference Distributions, Media Rights, and Post-Season Football reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year.[81]
The Atlantic Coast Conference sponsors championship competition in thirteen men's and fifteen women's NCAA-sanctioned sports.[89] The most recently added sports are women's gymnastics and fencing. Gymnastics was added for the 2023–24 school year with Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Pitt participating.[90] Fencing was added for the 2014–15 school year after having been absent from the conference since 1980; Boston College, Duke, North Carolina, and Notre Dame participate in that sport.[91]
Since all current and future ACC members (including non-football member Notre Dame) field FBS football teams, they are subject to the NCAA requirement that FBS schools field at least 16 teams in NCAA-recognized varsity sports. However, the ACC itself requires sponsorship of only four sports—football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and either women's soccer or women's volleyball.[92] All current and future ACC members sponsor all five of the named sports except Georgia Tech, which sponsors women's volleyball but not women's soccer.
1 2 3 Clemson announced it would drop its men's program in the sport of athletics (i.e, cross country and track & field) after the 2020–21 school year before reversing its decision in the spring of 2021.[93]
↑ Miami participates in diving only. For the purposes of this chart, Miami men's diving is counted as sponsoring half of the sport of men's swimming & diving.
The ACC is considered to be one of the Power Five conferences, all of which receive automatic placement of their football champions into one of the six major bowl games. Seven of its members claim football national championships in their history, with two having won the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series (BCS) during its existence between 1998 and 2014 and one having won under the current College Football Playoff (CFP) system. Five of its members are among the top 25 of college football's all-time winningest programs.[105] Three ACC teams, Florida State, Miami, and Clemson, are listed in the top 10 of most successful football programs since 2000.
Divisions and scheduling
In 2005, the ACC began divisional play in football. At the time, the ACC was the only NCAA Division I conference whose divisions were not divided geographically (e.g., north–south, East/West),[106] but rather into Atlantic and Coastal (this arrangement continues today for the sports of baseball and men's soccer). The two division leaders then competed in the ACC Championship Game to determine the conference championship, which guarantees a berth in a New Year's Six bowl game. The inaugural Championship Game was played on December 3, 2005, in Jacksonville, Florida, at the venue then known as Alltel Stadium, in which Florida State defeated Virginia Tech to capture its 12th championship since it joined the league in 1992. Notre Dame began playing several ACC teams each year in 2014, but is not considered a football member and is not eligible to play in the ACC Championship Game.[107]
On June 28, 2022, the ACC approved a new football schedule format, set to take effect in the 2023 season. Under this format, the conference will remove divisions, and instead play a 3–5–5 format, where each team plays 3 designated rivals every year along with two separate 5-team rotations that flip every other year, such that every team will have at least one home game and one away game against every other team in a four-year cycle (the standard length of a college player's career). Participation in the ACC championship game will also no longer be determined by the winners of the two divisions; the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will play instead.[108][109] The designated rivals under this system were as follows:
ACC permanent matchups (2023 only)
School
Rival 1
Rival 2
Rival 3
Boston College
Miami
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Clemson
Florida State
Georgia Tech
NC State
Duke
North Carolina
NC State
Wake Forest
Florida State
Clemson
Miami
Syracuse
Georgia Tech
Clemson
Louisville
Wake Forest
Louisville
Georgia Tech
Miami
Virginia
Miami
Boston College
Florida State
Louisville
North Carolina
Duke
NC State
Virginia
NC State
Clemson
Duke
North Carolina
Pittsburgh
Boston College
Syracuse
Virginia Tech
Syracuse
Boston College
Florida State
Pittsburgh
Virginia
Louisville
North Carolina
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech
Pittsburgh
Virginia
Wake Forest
Wake Forest
Duke
Georgia Tech
Virginia Tech
With the 2024 arrival of California, SMU, and Stanford, the ACC adopted a new scheduling model effective that season and running through the 2030 season. A total of 16 matchups will be protected, with 11 retained from the 2023 model, two (Miami–Virginia Tech and NC State–Wake Forest) restored from the former divisional format, and the three new members filling the remaining three slots. All teams will play each other at least twice in the cycle (once home, once away). Each of the pre-2024 members will play three times in California during the cycle, and none will travel to California in back-to-back seasons.[110]
ACC permanent matchups (2024–future)
School
Rival 1
Rival 2
Rival 3
Boston College
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
California
SMU
Stanford
Clemson
Florida State
Duke
North Carolina
NC State
Wake Forest
Florida State
Clemson
Miami
Georgia Tech
None
Louisville
None
Miami
Florida State
Virginia Tech
North Carolina
Duke
NC State
Virginia
NC State
Duke
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Pittsburgh
Boston College
Syracuse
SMU
California
Stanford
Stanford
California
SMU
Syracuse
Pittsburgh
Boston College
Virginia
North Carolina
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech
Miami
Virginia
Wake Forest
Duke
NC State
Additionally, this allows for each team to schedule four non-conference games. Since the 2014 season, one of the four non-conference games is against Notre Dame every two to three years, as Notre Dame plays against five ACC opponents in non-conference games each season. ACC members are also required to play at least one non-conference game each season against a team in the "Power 5" conferences since 2017. Games against Notre Dame also meet the requirement. In January 2015, the conference announced that games against another FBS independent, BYU, would also count toward the requirement.[lower-alpha 1][111] This requirement can also be met by scheduling other ACC teams in non-conference games; the first example of this was also announced in January 2015, when North Carolina and Wake Forest announced that they would play a home-and-home non-conference series in 2019 and 2021.[112]
Prior to this, the division format was as follows:
ACC Football Divisions (2005–2022)
Atlantic
Coastal
Boston College
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami
Louisville
Virginia
NC State
North Carolina
Syracuse
Pittsburgh
Wake Forest
Duke
Six games within its division (three home, three away, one against each opponent).
One game against a designated permanent rival from the other division (not necessarily the school's closest traditional rival, even within the conference), similar to the SEC setup.
One rotating game against a team in the other division, for a total of two cross-division games.
Non-permanent cross-division opponents face each other in the regular season twice in a span of twelve years.
Prior to the addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh in 2013, teams played two rotating cross-division games (for a total of three cross-division games), with a total of eight conference games. The addition of one team to each division meant the loss of one cross-division game per year.[114]
For the 2020 season, changes were made to the football schedule model due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of divisions was suspended, with conference games being scheduled on a regional basis. The top two teams by winning percentage against conference opponents advanced to the ACC Championship Game. All teams played 10 conference games and were permitted to play one non-conference game of their choice as long as the game was played in-state. In addition, Notre Dame played an ACC conference schedule and was eligible to (and ultimately did) play in the ACC Championship Game.[4]
Bowl games
Within the College Football Playoff, the Orange Bowl serves as the home of the ACC champion against Notre Dame or another team from the SEC or Big Ten. If the conference's champion is selected for the CFP, another ACC team will be chosen in its place.
The other bowls pick ACC teams in the order set by agreements between the conference and the bowls.
Beginning in 2014, Notre Dame is eligible for selection as the ACC's representative to any of its contracted bowl games. The ACC's bowl selection will no longer be bound by the rigidity of a "one-win rule" but will have a general list of criteria to emphasize regionality and quality matchups on the field. A one-win rule does apply to Notre Dame's participation in the ACC Bowl structure. Notre Dame is now eligible for ACC Bowl selection beginning with the ReliaQuest Bowl (previously named the Outback Bowl) and continuing through the league's bowl selections. However, Notre Dame must be within one win of the ACC available team which has the best overall record, in order to be chosen. In other words, if an ACC team were 9–3, a 7–5 Notre Dame team could not be chosen in its place. Notre Dame would have to be 8–4 to be chosen over a 9–3 league team. For the 2020 season only, Notre Dame competed for the ACC conference championship and was eligible for all games, including the Orange Bowl.
↑ With BYU's move to the Big 12 in 2023, it will no longer be an independent.
↑ If the ACC Champion is not in one of the semifinal games it will appear in the Orange Bowl or, if the Orange Bowl is a semifinal site, either the Peach Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl. There is no limit on how many teams the College Football Playoff may choose from a particular conference.
↑ Only if the ACC opponent in the Orange Bowl, in a non-semifinal year is a team from the Big Ten, a maximum of three times in six years.
↑ One ACC school will be selected to play in one of the following games.
National championships
Although the NCAA does not determine an official national champion for Division I FBS football, several ACC members claim national championships awarded by various "major selectors" of national championships as recognized in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records.[119] Since 1936 and 1950 respectively, these include what are now the most pervasive and influential selectors, the Associated Press poll and Coaches Poll. In addition, from 1998 to 2013 the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) used a mathematical formula to match the top two teams at the end of the season. The winner of the BCS was contractually awarded the Coaches' Poll national championship and its AFCA National Championship Trophy as well as the MacArthur Trophy from the National Football Foundation. Maryland won one championship as a member of the ACC in 1953.
↑ Duke has an NCAA recognized football National Championship from major selector Berryman(QPRS) from 1936, though Duke does not recognize the championship.[120]
↑ A "list of college football's mythical champions as selected by every recognized authority since 1924" was printed in Sports Illustrated in 1967.[121] Together with the 1976 national championship which would come later, the national championship selections listed by Sports Illustrated have since served as the historical basis of the university's national championship claims.[122] For the 1934 season, the Sports Illustrated article included a selection by Parke Davis, then deceased, which had appeared the 1935 edition of the annual Spalding's Football Guide under Davis' byline. The 1934 selection is not documented in the Official NCAA Football Records Book with the rest of Pitt's claimed seasons, although additional major selections for Pitt, which are not claimed by the university, are listed in 1910, 1980, and 1981.[123] College Football Data Warehouse recognizes nine championships for Pitt (1910, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1937, and 1976)[124] out of the 16 years which it has documented that Pitt was named as a national champion by various selectors.[125]
Intra-conference football rivalries
The members of the ACC have longstanding rivalries with each other, especially on the football field. The following is a list of active rivalries in the ACC with totals & records through the completion of the 2022 season.
The early roots of ACC basketball began primarily thanks to two men: Everett Case and Frank McGuire. Case accepted the head coaching job at North Carolina State. Case's North Carolina State teams dominated the early years of the ACC with a modern, fast-paced style of play. He became the fastest college basketball coach to reach many "games won" milestones. Case became known as The Father of ACC Basketball. Despite his success on the court, he may have been even a better promoter off-the-court. Case realized the need to sell his program and university. State started construction on Reynolds Coliseum in 1941. Case persuaded school officials to expand the arena to 12,400 people. It opened as the new home court for his team in 1949; at the time, it was the largest on-campus arena in the South. As such, it was used as the host site for many Southern Conference tournaments, ACC tournaments, and the Dixie Classic. The Dixie Classic brought in large revenues for all schools involved and soon became one of the premier sporting events in the South.
Partly to counter Case's success, North Carolina convinced Frank McGuire to come to Chapel Hill in 1952. McGuire knew that, largely due to Case's influence, basketball was now the major high school athletic event of the region. He not only tapped the growing market of high school talent in North Carolina, but also brought several recruits from his home territory in New York City as well. Case and McGuire literally invented a rivalry. Both men realized the benefits created through a rivalry between them. It brought more national attention to both of their programs and increased fan support on both sides.
After State was slapped with crippling NCAA sanctions before the 1956–57 season, McGuire's North Carolina team delivered the ACC its first national championship. During the Tar Heels' championship run, Greensboro entrepreneur Castleman D. Chesley noticed the popularity that it generated. He cobbled together a five-station television network to broadcast the Final Four. That network began broadcasting regular season ACC games the following season—the ancestor of the television package from Raycom Sports. From that point on, ACC basketball gained large popularity.
Possibly Case's most lasting contribution is the ACC tournament, which was first played in 1954 and decides the winner of the ACC title. The ACC is unique in that it is the only Division I college basketball conference that does not recognize a regular season champion. This started when only one school per conference made the NCAA tournament. The ACC representative was determined by conference tournament rather than the regular season result. Therefore, the league eliminated the regular season title in 1961, choosing to recognize only the winner of the ACC tournament as conference champion. Fans and media do claim a regular-season title for the team that finishes first, and the NCAA recognizes a regular-season title winner in order to maintain its system of choosing NIT and NCAA tournament berths based on regular season placement.[126] For the ACC, recognition of a regular season champion is insignificant as a 1975 NCAA rule change allowed more than one team per conference to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. As a result, the team finishing atop the ACC regular-season standings has invariably been invited to the NCAA tournament even if it did not win the ACC Tournament. Even so, any claim to a regular season "title" remains unofficial and carries no reward other than top seed in the ACC tournament.
Historically, the ACC has been dominated by the four teams from Tobacco Road in North Carolina—North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State and Wake Forest. Between them, they have won 50 tournament titles. They have also won or shared 59 regular season titles, including all but four since 1981. The Virginia Cavaliers, however, won the regular season titles in 2014 and 2015, becoming the first ACC team besides Duke or North Carolina to solely win back-to-back regular season titles since NC State was undefeated in conference play in 1972–73 and 1973–74. NC State also was undefeated in the ACC Tournament during those two seasons.
For 53 years, the ACC employed a double round-robin schedule in the regular season, in which each team played the others twice a season. With the expansion to 12 members by the 2005–2006 season, the ACC schedule could no longer accommodate this format. In the new scheduling format that was agreed to, each team was assigned two permanent partners and nine rotating partners over a three-year period.[127] Teams played their permanent partners in a home-and-away series each year. The rotating partners were split into three groups: three teams played in a home-and-away series, three teams played at home, and three teams played on the road. The rotating partner groups were rotated so that a team would play each permanent partner six times, and each rotating partner four times, over a three-year period.
For the 2012–13 season, the 12-team in-conference schedule expanded to 18. Originally for the 2013–14 season, the expanded 14-team, 18-game schedule was to consist of a home and away game with a "primary partner" while the remaining conference opponents would have rotated in groups of three: one year both home and away, one year at home only, and one year away only.[128] However, when Notre Dame was also added for the 2013–14 season, the now 15-team, 18-game schedule was modified so each school played two "Partners" home and away annually, two home and away, five home, and the other five away.[129] In 2013–14, after 1 year at 18 games, women's basketball went back to a 16-game schedule where each team only plays 2 teams twice, rotating opponents each year over seven years and has no permanent partners. In 2019–2020, with the launch of the ACC Network, the men's schedule expanded to 20 games and the women's schedule expanded to 18 games.
The ACC and the Big Ten Conference have held the ACC–Big Ten Challenge each season since 1999. The competition is a series of regular-season games pitting ACC and Big Ten teams against each other. Each team typically plays one Challenge game each season, except for a few teams from the larger conference that are left out due to unequal conference sizes. The first ACC–Big Ten Women's Challenge was played in 2007, and has the same format as the men's Challenge.
National championships and Final Fours
Over the course of its existence, ACC schools have captured 15 NCAA men's basketball championships while members of the conference. North Carolina has won six, Duke has won five, NC State has won two, and Maryland and Virginia have each won one. Four more national titles were won by current ACC members while in other conferences—three by 2014 arrival Louisville and one by 2013 arrival Syracuse; Louisville was forced to vacate the third national title due to NCAA sanctions. Seven of the 12 pre-2013 members have advanced to the Final Four at least once while members of the ACC. Another pre-2013 member, Florida State, made the Final Four once before joining the ACC. All three schools that entered the ACC in 2013, as well as Louisville, advanced to the Final Four at least once before joining the conference. Two of the three schools joining in 2024, Bay Area rivals California and Stanford, have each won one NCAA title.
Also notable are earlier national championships from historical eras prior to the dominance of the NCAA-administered championship. The ACC is often credited with forcing the NCAA tournament to expand to allow more than one team per conference, creating the at-large NCAA field common today.[130] The Helms Athletic Foundation selected national champions for seasons predating the beginning of the NCAA tournament (1939), including North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, and future member Stanford. Prior to the at-large era (1975), the National Invitation Tournament championship had prestige comparable to the NCAA championship, and Louisville, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia Tech won titles during this period (later NIT titles are not considered consensus national championships).[131]
In women's basketball, ACC members have won three national championships while in the conference, North Carolina in 1994, Maryland in 2006, and Notre Dame in 2018. Notre Dame, which joined in 2013, also previously won the national title in 2001. In 2006, Duke, Maryland, and North Carolina all advanced to the Final Four, the first time a conference placed three teams in the women's Final Four. Both finalists were from the ACC, with Maryland defeating Duke for the title. Future member Stanford has won three national titles (1990, 1992, 2021).
Italics denotes honors earned before the school joined the ACC. Women's national championship tournaments prior to 1982 were run by the AIAW.
↑ Duke has been the men's NCAA runner-up 6 times (1964, 1978, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1999)
↑ Duke has reached the men's Final Four 17 times (1963, 1964, 1966, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2015, 2022)
↑ Louisville's third national title, in 2013, was vacated due to NCAA sanctions.
↑ Louisville has reached the men's Final Four 8 times (1959, 1972, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1986, 2005). Two Final Four appearances (2012, 2013) were vacated due to NCAA sanctions.
↑ North Carolina has won the NCAA men's championship six times (1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017)
↑ North Carolina has reached the men's Final Four 21 times (1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2022)
↑ Notre Dame has reached the women's Final Four 7 times (1997, 2001, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018)
↑ Stanford has reached the women's Final Four 15 times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2022)
↑ Syracuse has reached the men's Final Four six times (1975, 1987, 1996, 2003, 2013, 2016)
With the ACC having abandoned football divisions in 2023, baseball is one of only two ACC-sponsored sports with a divisional split (Atlantic and Coastal), with men's soccer being the other. The alignment is shown below:
ACC Baseball Divisions
Atlantic
Coastal
Boston College
Duke
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami
Louisville
North Carolina
NC State
Pittsburgh
Notre Dame
Virginia
Wake Forest
Virginia Tech
These divisions paralleled the former divisions of ACC football with the exception of Notre Dame replacing Syracuse, the only ACC school which does not field a baseball team, within the Atlantic Division, giving both divisions seven teams. Louisville replaced Maryland in the Atlantic Division beginning with the 2015 season.
Eight ACC teams were selected to play in the 2019 NCAA Division I baseball tournament, with Florida State and Louisville advancing to the Men's College World Series.[n 3] The ACC has won the Men's College World Series twice: by Virginia in 2015 and Wake Forest in 1955. In addition, Miami won four titles before joining the ACC,[132] and South Carolina has won two titles since leaving the league. Current member schools have appeared in the Men's College World Series a combined total of 93 times (including appearances before joining the conference). In 2016, the ACC was ranked as the top baseball conference by Rating Percentage Index (RPI); the conference has ranked among the top three by this measure each of the past 10 years.[133]
Men's College World Series / NCAA Tournament History
School
Men's College World Series Championships
Men's College World Series Appearances
Last MCWS Appearance
NCAA tournament Appearances
Last NCAA Appearance
Miami †
1982, 1985, 1999, 2001
25
2016
49
2023
Stanford †
1987, 1988
19
2023
37
2023
California †
1947, 1957
6
2011
14
2019
Virginia
2015
5
2021
20
2023
Wake Forest
1955
2
1955
16
2023
Florida State †
23
2019
59
2022
Clemson
12
2010
45
2023
North Carolina
11
2018
35
2023
Louisville †
5
2019
14
2022
Boston College †
4
1967
9
2023
Georgia Tech
3
2006
34
2022
Duke
3
1961
10
2023
NC State
3
2021
33
2023
Notre Dame †
3
2022
24
2022
Virginia Tech
0
n/a
11
2022
Pittsburgh
0
n/a
3
1995
^ Syracuse does not currently field a baseball team but has one appearance in the NCAA baseball tournament prior to joining the conference. † The count of Men's College World Series appearances includes those made by the school prior to joining the ACC:
Boston College: 4 appearances
California: 6 appearances
Florida State: 11 appearances
Louisville: 3 appearances
Miami: 21 appearances
Notre Dame: 2 appearances
Stanford: 19 appearances
Syracuse: 1 appearance
Field hockey
The ACC has won 22 of the 42NCAA Championships in field hockey. Maryland won 8 as a member of the ACC.
Of the current ACC members, 12 sponsor men's golf and 10 sponsor women's golf; all three schools joining in 2024 also sponsor the sport for both sexes. Four team national championships in men's golf and seven national titles in women's golf have been won by ACC members while in the conference, led by the Duke women's team that has won seven national titles since 1999. In addition, two more team national titles, one in men's golf and one in women's golf, have been won by current ACC members before they joined the conference. The three future members have combined for 12 national team titles—one each by the California and SMU men, and the rest by Stanford (8 men's, 2 women's).
Italics denote championships won before the school joined the ACC.
↑ Duke has won the women's golf championship 7 times (1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2019)
↑ Stanford has won the men's golf championship 8 times (1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1953, 1994, 2007, 2019)
Lacrosse
Since 1971, when the first men's national champion was determined by the NCAA, the ACC has won 17 NCAA championships, more than any other conference in college lacrosse. Virginia has won seven NCAA Championships, North Carolina has won five, Duke has won three, and Notre Dame has won one. Former ACC member Maryland won two NCAA Championships as an ACC member. In addition, prior to the establishment of the NCAA tournament, Maryland had won nine national championships while Virginia won two. Syracuse, which joined the ACC in 2013, won ten NCAA-sponsored national championships, the most ever by any Division I lacrosse program, before joining the conference. Since 1987, the only years in which the national championship game did not feature a current ACC member were 2015, 2017, and 2022.
Women's lacrosse has awarded a national championship since 1982, and the ACC has won more titles than any other conference. In all, the ACC has won 12 women's national championships since the conference began sponsoring the sport in 1997: former ACC member Maryland won seven, North Carolina has won three, while Virginia and Boston College each have won once. Additionally, Maryland won four (plus one AIAW title in 1981) and Virginia two before 1997.
Men's soccer is the second of the ACC-sponsored sports currently split into divisions, which are as follows:
ACC Men's Soccer Divisions
Atlantic
Coastal
Boston College
Duke
Clemson
Notre Dame
Louisville
North Carolina
NC State
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Virginia
Wake Forest
Virginia Tech
Twelve of the fifteen ACC schools sponsor men's soccer — a higher proportion than any of the other Power Five conferences. All three future members also sponsor men's soccer. Only the three southernmost ACC schools — Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami — do not sponsor soccer. Virginia has won 7 NCAA titles, and more since 1990 than any other university in the country. The ACC overall has won 19 national championships, including 16 of the 31 seasons between 1984 and 2014. Seven of the championships were won by Virginia, with the remaining nine by: Maryland (three times while they were in the ACC), Clemson (four times), North Carolina (twice), Duke, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, and Syracuse. Future member Stanford has won three national titles.
In women's soccer, North Carolina has won 21 of the 39 NCAA titles since the NCAA crowned its first champion, as well as the only Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) soccer championship in 1981. The Tar Heels have also won 22 of the 33 ACC tournaments. They lost in the final to North Carolina State in 1988 and Virginia in 2004, both times by penalty kicks. The 2010 tournament was the first in which they failed to make the championship game, falling to eventual champion Wake Forest in the semi-finals. The 2012 ACC tournament saw North Carolina's first quarterfinal loss, to the eventual champion Virginia; however, the Tar Heels went on to win the national title that season. In 2014, Florida State became the first school other than North Carolina to win the national championship as an ACC member. Notre Dame won three NCAA titles before it joined the ACC in 2013. The 2020 NCAA tournament, in which Florida State was national runner-up, was delayed until the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is listed as 2020 to distinguish it from the 2021 season, which was played on the sport's traditional fall schedule. Stanford has won three women's national titles.
The Capital One Cup is an award given annually to the best men's and women's Division I college athletics programs in the United States. Points are earned throughout the year based on final standings of NCAA Championships and final coaches' poll rankings.
Virginia (2015 and 2019) and Notre Dame (2014 and 2022) have twice finished first for men's sports. North Carolina (2013) has once finished first on the women's side.
The following table displays ACC top 20 finishes in the Capital One Cup.
↑ It was the second major conference that evolved from the Southern Conference, following the departure of Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Sewanee, Tennessee, Tulane, and Vanderbilt to form the Southeastern Conference.
↑ The official name of the final phase of the Division I baseball tournament has been "Men's College World Series" since no later than 2008. However, the NCAA did not use the word "Men's" in the event branding until the 2022 edition.
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↑ "History of FSU Football"(PDF). 2017 Florida State Football Media Guide. p.153. Archived(PDF) from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
↑ "Georgia Tech Football Timeline". 2017 Georgia Tech Football Information Guide. July 31, 2017. p.146. Archived from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
↑ "ACC Hall of Champions Debuts". SlamOnline.com. Source Interlink Magazines, LLC. March 2, 2011. Archived from the original on March 4, 2011. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
↑ Taylor, John (September 12, 2012). "Sources: Notre Dame to ACC". College Football Talk. ESPN. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
↑ Somers, D.; Moody, J. (May 21, 2019). "See the Best Colleges Rankings of ACC Schools". US News. Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Academically, the ACC boasts the most highly ranked schools across the Power 5 conferences, which compete at the top tier of college athletics, with Duke University leading the way for the conference in a tie at No. 8 in the 2019 U.S. News National Universities rankings.
↑ Lombardi, John V.; Capaldi Phillips, Elizabeth D.; Abbey, Craig W.; Craig, Diane D. (2017). The Top American Research Universities 2016 Annual Report(PDF). The Center for Measuring University Performance. pp.206–209. ISBN9780985617066. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 16, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2018. Faculty Awards in the Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, and Health Source: Directories or web-based listings for multiple agencies or organizations. For this category, we collect data from several prominent grant and fellowship programs in the arts, humanities, science, engineering, and health fields. (see pages 227–228)
↑ "University of Notre Dame Financial Information". University of Notre Dame. March 14, 2023. Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Notre Dame's operating budget for the fiscal year 2021–22 is $1.5 billion, and the market value of its endowment is approximately $13.3 billion.
↑ "Fencing Back In ACC Mix" (Press release). Atlantic Coast Conference. September 27, 2013. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
↑ 2011 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records(PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2011. pp.70–75. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
↑ 2012 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records(PDF). Indianapolis, IN: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2012. pp.71–73. Archived(PDF) from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
↑ Jenkins, Dan (September 11, 1967). "This Year The Fight Will Be In The Open". Sports Illustrated. Vol.27, no.11. Chicago: Time, Inc. pp.30–33. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
↑ Borghetti, E.J.; Nestor, Mendy; Welsh, Celeste, eds. (2008). 2008 Pitt Football Media Guide(PDF). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh. p.156. Archived(PDF) from the original on May 23, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
↑ 2012 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records(PDF). Indianapolis, IN: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2012. pp.71–73. Archived(PDF) from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
↑ The Triangle teams' original partners, which have since been varied (for example, Duke's original partners were North Carolina and Maryland and, as reflected in the table in the body of the article, are now North Carolina and Wake Forest) can be found here: "USATODAY.com – ACC releases 12-team basketball schedule". usatoday30.usatoday.com. April 2, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
Walker, J. Samuel, ACC Basketball: The Story of the Rivalries, Traditions, and Scandals of the First Two Decades of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
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